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How To Find A Job: Just Be Willing To Flip Burgers And Work For Minimum Wage

By Michael Snyder, on April 4th, 2011

Do you want to know how to find a job in America today? It’s easy. Just be willing to flip burgers, wait tables or welcome people to Wal-Mart. You must also be willing to work for close to minimum wage with no health benefits. It’s not that complicated. On April 19th, McDonald’s is going to be holding its first “national hiring day” and it will be attempting to fill 50,000 positions. Hundreds of thousands of applicants are expected, so if you are going to apply be ready for some stiff competition. McDonald’s held a similar event last year in its western region and 60,000 people applied for just 13,000 jobs. But if you are one of the lucky ones, you too may soon be flipping burgers for minimum wage. Who said that finding a job was hard and that the U.S. economy doesn’t work anymore? All of us just need to be “flexible” and we all need to be willing to adapt to the “new economic reality”.

Oh, you say that you can’t pay the mortgage and feed your family on what they would pay you at McDonald’s?

You say that you are looking for a “good job”?

Well, that is just too bad.

Good jobs are becoming increasingly scarce. In fact, there are 10% fewer “middle class jobs” in the United States today than there were a decade ago.

The competition for the few “middle class jobs” that are still available has become so intense that you might not want to steer clear. You just can’t afford to be too picky in today’s world.

After all, you don’t want to become one of those poor saps that is unemployed month after month after month. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average length of unemployment in the U.S. is now an all-time record 39 weeks.

Can you really afford to be out of work for almost a year?

Why not go after the “low hanging fruit”? For a position at McDonald’s or Wal-Mart you will probably only be competing against four or five other people for each job opening. Those odds aren’t that bad.

Things were not always like this in America, you say?

Once upon a time there were actually lots and lots of great jobs?

Well, this is part of the sacrifice that we must make for the emerging global economy. We must allow thousands of our factories to close and millions of our good paying jobs to be shipped overseas. Our politicians have all promised us that globalism will be incredibly good for us in the long run.

So don’t be alarmed when naysayers warn that the United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobsper month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Yes, American workers now must directly compete for jobs with millions of people willing to work for slave labor wages on the other side of the globe. But eventually their wages will come up slightly and our wages will go way down to their level and at that point we will all have equality.

You aren’t against “equality” are you?

Who could be against equality?

This is what globalism is all about – tearing down all the borders and gathering us all into one big, happy “global family”. Right now too many of the good jobs are in America so millions of them have to be shipped out of the country. Also, millions of legal and illegal immigrants must be allowed into the U.S. so that they can compete for American jobs as well.

But won’t that drive wages down?

Of course, but in the end the “global community” will benefit.

What did you think? Did you actually believe that the United States would be able to have a thriving middle class forever?

In the new “global economy“, the wealthy get to exploit slave labor on the other side of the world thus wiping out the American middle class.

Already we are seeing signs of an “economic recovery” with the ultra-rich leading the way. According to Moody’s Analytics, the wealthiest 5% of households in the United States now account for approximately 37% of all consumer spending.

That is some “change” that Wall Street can believe in!

But what about the rest of us?

All kidding aside, it is absolutely brutal out there right now.

American families just want jobs that will enable them to pay their mortgages, put food on the table and provide a decent standard of living for their families.

Unfortunately, those jobs are disappearing and they are being replaced by low paying service jobs.

According to a recent report from the National Employment Law Project, higher wage industries accounted for 40 percent of the job losses over the past 12 months but only 14 percent of the job growth. Lower wage industries accounted for just 23 percent of the job losses over the past 12 months and a whopping 49 percent of the job growth.

So yes, it has become extremely difficult to find a job that pays a decent wage.

One reader recently left a comment that detailed how this economy has left her without a job, without a home and feeling depressed….

Yup, Im depressed. If I would have known what the WTO protests were about here in Seattle in the 90s, I would have joined in. I knew a lot of folks were very angry, but I wasn’t sure why. I was a busy working mother of a toddler. Now fast forward 10+ years and I haven’t worked in 2 and a half years and only 4 job interviews in that time and 0 job offers. we are going to get paid by Chase to give them our home (gee thanks!) so we can move out… OK now what? things aren’t looking too good. I started a very small business that no where near comes even close to supporting us. So were going to stay in my brother’s house in Texas. and then? who knows. at least I don’t feel alone. there are millions of stories just like mine.

Sadly, there are millions more stories just like this. The U.S. economy has fundamentally changed and it simply does not work like it used to.

Millions of American families are experiencing severe economic pain right now, and millions more will be experiencing it very soon.

In a previous article entitled, “Where Are The Jobs?“, I explained why things are changing for American workers….

Most Americans don’t really care about the economic minutiae that many of us who study the U.S. economy love to pour over. When it comes to the economy, the typical American citizen just wants to be able to get a good job, make a decent living and put bread on the table for the family. For generations, this arrangement has worked out quite well. The U.S. economy has provided large numbers of middle class jobs and the American people have worked hard and have helped this nation prosper like no other. But now people are starting to notice that something has shifted. Millions of people are looking around and are realizing that the jobs that are supposed to be there are not there anymore. The American people are still working hard (and in many cases harder than ever) but all of that hard work is producing fewer and fewer rewards. Often politicians will placate voters by telling them that they are working harder and harder for less and less. That tends to ring true with voters because that is a very accurate description of what so many of them are actually experiencing, but what the politicians don’t tell us is that they are the ones to blame for the situation that we are in. As millions of jobs become obsolete because of technology and millions of other jobs are shipped overseas, our politicians tell us over and over that we can “compete” with anyone and that if we will just go out and get some more education we can make it happen. But those of us who are extremely over-educated know what a fraud that line is. The truth is that there are not nearly enough jobs for all of us no matter how “educated” we are. This is creating a lot of anger and frustration, and now even the IMF is warning that we could see “an explosion of social unrest” if high unemployment persists.

Unfortunately, most of our politicians do not have any answers. Bill Clinton greatly accelerated the shipping of our jobs overseas. George W. Bush was a complete and total disaster when it came to the economy. Barack Obama has been continuing most of the economic policies of those that came before him.

Unless we make some fundamental changes, millions of jobs will continue to be lost, the U.S. industrial base will continue to be dismantled, we will continue to go into astounding amounts of debt as a nation and more American families will slip into poverty every single day.

But waiting for Washington D.C. to change is kind of like waiting for hell to freeze over. The Federal Reserve is not going to help us either. In fact, the Fed is at the very heart of our economic problems.

No, the truth is that the U.S. economy is going to continue to go downhill. All of us need to try to become less dependent on the system, because when it collapses it is going to devastate the lives of tens of millions of American families.

I am also seeing a lot of young people joining the military right out of school. They don’t see college grads getting jobs, so they figure joining the military will give them some work experience and travel. Will that be enough to get them a job when they return?

I’d be interested in knowing how it’s going for veterans. Do you have any info in that department?

Thank you.

hold the cheese

unfortunately, runnin a cash register, flippin burgers, stockin shelves are the skill sets reqired in this economy.u know things are tough when u need a college degree to flip burgers for $8 an hour.

Ron Paul was right all along.

It is so refreshing to see such an excellent article about the TRUTH.

Morpheus

This is very funny until you think of the people who could really use these jobs. Unfortunately, you can’t raise a family or making living on these jobs. That’s how most of the jobs are these days. The pay next to nothing while offering no benefits.

sure the fed is the problem!!!! not gggeeee ie ge not walmarrrrt. they never exported those good manuuuuufacturing jobs. got med ins. maybe the anasteogist is not in the plan dont worry they will just attach your house. but in italy spain ger brittan denmark sweedenthe people never have that worry u r a failed state.

mondobeyondo

Who says the economy isn’t producing new jobs?? There are plenty of jobs! Get yourself three of them, and you might even be able to pay the mortgage/rent, and have a little left over for food on the table!

Wal-Mart and a janitorial job to pay the rent, and Mickey D’s for the food budget (employee discounts for Big Macs, McChickens, McFish and McIceCream help.)

Utilities? Oh yeah, forgot about gas, water, electricity, etc. Ummm… take a sponge bath with a bottle of Aquafina, and eat dinner by candlelight. And pray your situation will improve.

You just have to be motivated to go out there and GET THOSE JOBS!!! Quit being so “lazy”!

*tongue in cheek*

Patriot One

Well before you get all excited about 50,000 jobs, that’s just about a normal month for Mcdonald’s. You see I think it may actually be a slow month for Mcdonalds. 50,000 jobs is only 3.9 employees per location.

Did you know many who go to work for Mcdonalds don’t even make it a full week. Its just another example of another HeadLie, I mean Headline.

Hmmm, could it be they needed to give a good news Headlie for their Obamacare waiver???

mondobeyondo

Economic equilibrium, coming to an American town or city near you!

The IT technician in China (perhaps your former job?!) will be earning $10 an hour assembling electronics. You will be earning $10 an hour flipping burgers.

The textile and clothing person in India will be earning $8.00 an hour sewing fancy dresses and stitching tennis shoes. So will you, by standing at the doorway and repeating, “Hi! Welcome to Wal-Mart!”

There is a difference, though. Their standard of living is starting to go up. Ours is going down. Way, way, way down. For Americans, it’s going to be life without a cellphone, an iPad, or iPod, or big screen TV, or a car with a $400/month lease, and no more dinners at Olive Garden or Red Lobster.

Get ready, and then get used to it. Ain’t globalism grand?

jonesy

You know… for the neoliberal dogma, there´s no such thing as “unemployment”. The people that does not work..is because they don´t want to. How do they explain large numbers of unemployment? “the “greedy” unions are to blame”

Otown Right Guy

Ya see the Obama administration is right. The economy has turned around! I am so glad we have his genius and other geniuses like the Bernanke and Geithner centrally planning our economy. Gary2 and ImpeachRonPaul are right. Socialism works!

http://www.planorperish.com/ Gutter Economist

During the last Great Depression, many people sold apples on street corners. Thanks to high technology, people can now manage blogs on the internet with affiliate advertisements. Selling apples, however, would probably be more profitable – LOL

Gary2

Thanks for the 100% correct article Michael. This underemployment is terrible. I am one of the downwardly mobile underemployed.

I do not think it is worth bragging about all the new jobs if they are shit low pay ones. There is nothing positive about this. The gov should be saying how many of the newly created jobs are family supporting.

I really believe that these low pay shit jobs need to be unionized. They can be forced to pay a living wage or have no workers. Can’t really outsource walmart/burger king etc.

What is really sickening is the low pay companies like wal-mart get a ton of corporate welfare. They have info in the break rooms on how their employees can get food stamps and state health-care for the poor. Walmart could easily triple their wages and still make a good profit. I think the Waltons are rich enough.

As anyone can see our system is not working. Time to be more like Scandinavia!

Gary2

I almost forgot-we have an economic draft. Poor and formerly middle class kids go to the military as their is no opportunity.

Rising inequality in wealth and income = decreasing opportunities.

TAX THE RICH HARD! SPREAD THE WEALTH!

Kevin

The standard of living in the developed world is dropping and will drop at an accelerated rate before the body politic in the developed democracies have a chance to politically organize to counter it. Get as close to necessities as possible. Invest in, work in and live near food and energy.

Everyone can complain but regardless of the effort either individual or collective globalization and it’s effects on society will run it’s course. All anyone can do is to put themselves in a position to weather the storm as best as possible.

http://www.no2foreclosures.info David

“. . . it is going to devastate the lives of tens of millions of American families.”

Try hundreds of millions.

PostPeakOilGuru

Well… if you wanna improve your income then DON’T work for someone else – work for yourself !
I sell gold and (lots of) silver bullion on the side and make $1600/month profit for around 1 hours work, if you call going to the local post office work.
I also make bird scarers and sell ’em on eBay and through local plant nurseries and hardware stores so that’s another $200/month profit and it’s only just starting. I’m also trialling a new product that should make more than I can handle !
So, all you need is creativity, imagination, determination and untapped markets.
Oh yeah, and leave the USA before it collapses totally later this year and start your business elsewhere…

007

If you think you and your family can’t live on $8.00 an hour, you are not using your imagination. Just look at China where workers live in 100 person triple bunk dorm rooms. They make $50.00 a month and that is who we are competing against. Until we stop this insane trade war with China and the global economy we will continue to slide toward that standard of living. we will all soon be standing around saying ” Remember the good old days when we could flip burgers and make $8.00 an hour?”

Perry

Our local right-leaning newspaper recently had an editorial piece suggesting that the reason that there is so much unemployment is that the minimum wage is just too high!! The author suggested that if we cut the minimum wage by 1/3rd, employers could hire 50% more people. Of course, IMHO, employees couldn’t afford to buy gas to get to work, but who cares? The rich would get richer and the poor would get poorer. Isn’t that the ultimate goal???

dan17

back in 1990 i was working at mcdonalds breakfast shift for about a year. really the economy was just as horrible as now. i was getting 3.80 an hour and had to cook about four to six hundred eggs a day plus other things i had to do. i saw bush senior on tv saying how the minimum wage should stay low at 3.80 and said to myself what an evil man. then came b. clinton and what a disaster that loser was but people are stupid and are gonna stand by him cause he is a domocrat. so incredible the logic of some people. clinton is no different than bush sr an jr and obama but they get support cause they are democrats or republicans. none of these clowns care about anything else but themselves. i would like to see an article aboiut the hipocrisy of msnbc hosts that are owned by GE and how GE has not paid any taxes last year. bring chris mathews and the lesbian and that ed dude to say they are sold whores to the establishment. God help us all!!

dan17

back in 1990 i was working at mcdonalds breakfast shift for about a year. really the economy was just as horrible as now. i was getting 3.80 an hour and had to cook about four to six hundred eggs a day plus other things i had to do. i saw bush senior on tv saying how the minimum wage should stay low at 3.80 and said to myself what an evil man. then came b. clinton and what a disaster that loser was but people are stupid and are gonna stand by him cause he is a democrat. so incredible the logic of some people. clinton is no different than bush sr an jr and obama but they get support cause they are democrats or republicans. none of these clowns care about anything else but themselves. i would like to see an article about the hipocrisy of msnbc hosts that are owned by GE and how GE has not paid any taxes last year. bring chris mathews and the lesbian and that ed dude to say they are sold whores to the establishment. God help us all!!

‘we’ got ourselves into this mess by voting in the idiots that did this to us – we elected them then trusted them to do right for us – well they screwed us in the a when we turned our backs on them – that’s what we get for not being vigilant – lesson learned – man up and do something about it

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com Wood Burner

At the root of all the woes mentioned in this article is the federal government. Doesn’t matter what the sheeple believe about corporations, it is the government that created the environment where business faces huge hurdles just to launch an enterprise, let alone make a profit. Granted, those bloodsucking corporations would sell their mothers for riches, but ultimately the federal government bears responsibility for the economy.

America gets the government it deserves. Even now we are seeing the blithering idiot who occupies the White House launching his re-election campaign. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! How does a rabid Marxist who has lied about virtually every aspect of his life even have a chance to become your president? Because there are that many morons who elect him.

This is no longer a republic of moral free thinkers, but a camp of socialist automatons. Thankfully our founders crafted a constitution that allows truly independent people to retain their rights. Ultimately the God-given protections outlined in the Bill of Rights will be only law to recognize.

Get ready…..one day you will awake to find that our country is under “martial law”. But there is only one real law-we were just too blind to see it in our lust for material possessions.

http://bandofthewhiterose.tablazines.com Band of the White Rose

This is why there will be a Draft. This is why Obama’s Home Guard will be touted, and remember they will be “as fully funded, armed and trained” as our regular military. The economic costs? Hundreds of billions. The freedom costs? Priceless. But the young with their worthless degrees will be given uniforms and weapons and federal authority/power “to keep us safe.” And you won’t be needing your own guns anymore. And America’s youth will be off the streets and out of mischief.

Rob

Crap….I wish I had been wrong….Twenty years ago I told people BUY American goods. Ohhh but I can get it cheaper at Walmart. I continually said that someday if everyone did that, their jobs would go away too. I’ve run a craft business for years, and saw this coming…everyone laughed at me. We get what we deserve. When we buy local, sure it may cost a little more money, but your are helping support a neighbor, friend or relative. Part of the cost of an item has a human element. We have been gluttons, self centered, and basically little assholes…we are now paying the price for wanton consumption at the lowest dollar cost…Now. those things weren’t really all that cheap were they? Sorry for the cynism, but really. WAKE the heck up……BUY frickin local ..idiots. A dollar spent locally circulates through the community. A dollar spent at Walmart gets sucked out of the community. Simple logistics…Stop being suckered.

Martin

To BobBobBobBob learn to articulate and use the right words!
English is also not my mothertongue but i manage.
This happy global economic family as described in the article seems to me like a new communistic world state where only the rich few[elite bastards]get to enjoy wealth and absurd wages!
And we the people get to work for slave wages or social welfare hand me outs!
The ones to blame are the politicians and CEO`s of the big compagnies who sold the western world out to the third world countries.
And not because they care so much for those people over there but they found out that in this way they can accumulate much more money and get more power in return.
But the western way of living and civilisation
has made us weak and materialistic.
As long as we can buy a flatscreen tv or the newest Ipad and get to drive our cars and get to stuff our bodies with unhealthy foods we don`t mind and we rather let someone else worry about the crisis at hand.
But we Americans and Europeans need to ********* wake up and say no to this utter horror way of living and downfall of our economies!

Tom

and republicans added one trillion to the debt to give tax breaks to millionaires. Republicans are killing the middle class.

http://yousue.org/ Neil Gillespie

“Just be willing to flip burgers, wait tables or welcome people to Wal-Mart. You must also be willing to work for close to minimum wage with no health benefits.”

Also, be sure to fund your own retirement plan (can’t count on Social Security), along with your own healthcare plan, with the overage from your close to minimum wage job. And don’t forget to save for your kid’s future, or he/she will end up in a dead-end job like YOU!

Richard

1. WTO needs to go
2. IRS needs to go
3. FED needs to go
I was told as a kid four letter words were bad well, WTF, whoops another three letter word. Shoot our nation has forgotten what our Founding Fathers warned us about and we are the New Roman Empire for history repeats itself.

El Pollo de Oro

Michael T. Snyder writes, “It is absolutely brutal out there right now.” Indeed it is. The Banana Republic of America (formerly the USA) now has the economy of a Third World country, and in Third World banana republics, there is no middle class—only a filthy rich minority and a dirt-poor majority. Back in the early 1990s, Ross Perot tried to warn us about the evils of globalism and that “giant sucking sound.” But proponents of so-called “free trade” didn’t want to listen. Turns out Perot was absolutely right.

And one of the problems with Third World banana republics is that they can be very dangerous places. Inevitably, people in the dirt-poor majority rebel against their miserable condition and turn to crime. Violent crime is pandemic in South Africa, Venezuela, Papua New Guinea, Jamaica and other Third World countries. In Downtown Johannesburg, violent muggings are a way of living even in broad daylight. Affluent people in Caracas need bodyguards to visit the supermarket in the middle of the afternoon because without them, they are likely to be kidnapped and held for ransom. And Gerald Celente is absolutely right when he says that kidnapping will soon be equally common in this un-developing country.

“When people lose everything and they have nothing left to lose, they lose it.”—Gerald Celente

Truer words were never spoken.

Welcome to life in a Third World horror movie. Welcome to the rotting, decaying, collapsing empire known as The Banana Republic of America, formerly the USA.

Faux Gary

Uh, why don’t we just tax the wealthy and spread the money around? Simple fix from a simple mind. I should run for Congress.

Jasper

It is not until the mases rise up will change take place.

Awesomedubs

I’m personally looking fwd to the great monetary collapse. The system is flawed and unjust. Timebanking is the only true just currency. Someday we’ll all be forced to survive using it. And I’ll thank the Lord above.

karen

And to add to that, we are going to have a goverment shut-down, the plans are already in place, the Active duty will take the place of all the civilins that sre sent home from all of the many bases in the US But the military will recieve no pay, and they have no choice because they will be subject to jail time, you can read about this in the April issue of the Air Force Times, dated 4 April 2011.

DownWithLibs

I still live in the same town I grew up in. I still swing through the same McD’s in town that I worked at 20 years ago. Sometimes I will sit in my car in the drive-thru and wonder if I might end up back there again in desperation. The job I have now is pretty good and seems pretty secure, at least for the short term, but I can’t help but be concerned about what tomorrow will bring. Somehow I don’t think that the people who voted for Obama (thankfully I was not one of them!) had this in mind for “Change”.

Mike

Correction: it won’t devastate the lives of tens of millions of American families, it will devastate all of them.

third world service economy

So college is obsolete? Do you want fries with that shake, we would supersize but that has been deemed politically incorrect comrade.

Maria

What will be the turning point for America?

Remember…
1930 US population = apprx 122 million.
2010 US population = over 308 million.

As the job market dies, government devolves. Government resorts to money printing to pay debt.

so there are a lot of young people joining the military right out of school…………uhmmm
I foresee wars in the next decade………

http://www.danielrevelationbiblestudies.com Robert Stout

Thanks again for writing about the truth in these matters!!!There are hundreds of thousands of college graduates in the market place looking for work!!! Many have given up!!! We can readily put the blame on our politicians who many are professional thieves and many feel they are above the law. Their day of reckoning is coming very soon when they stand before God Almighty and listen to their fateful sentence being carried out!! There will be a few that will seek repentance and forgiveness before this time of judgment for all the multitude of sins and hardships they have created for millions of Americans.

liberranter

I can tell you from firsthand experience that the underground economy is thriving as never before. The key for anyone with entrepreneurial ambitions and/or capital is to be smart enough avoid working within the “system.” That means not incorporating, not advertising, accepting CASH ONLY (or barter in some equivalent medium of exchange) for goods or services rendered, and STAYING THE HELL AWAY FROM BANKS! Inconvenient? Sure as hell is, but freedom isn’t usually convenient in these times, now is it?

Also, BEWARE OF THE ECONOMIC “GESTAPOS” that have been set up with federal “stimulus money” by states and localities to entrap “tax cheats” (i.e., those seeking to run a competitive business in which they can keep the fruits of their own labor). You can go a long way in avoiding these agents of totalitarianism by being discreet in your client selection and low-key in your business activities. But trust me: as things continue to implode and it finally becomes obvious to even the densest lumps of flesh among us that “the government” is THE ENEMY that is going to GRIND THEM INTO THE EARTH, what is now known as the “underground economy” is going to become the norm!

sharonsj

Morpheus: I agree that we need a second revolution, but I’m thinking more French than American. We’ve been electing different people every cycle, but nothing changes. And not enough of the old guard has been gotten rid of (think Boehner, who spends more time golfing overseas on the lobbyists’ dime than working).

Phoning and emailing my reps goes nowhere. The next step has to be massive protests, not only in Washington, but on the front lawns of the hedge fund managers and bank CEOs, the Koch Brothers, the Chamber of Commerce, etc. I’m not worried about unions, who fight to get their workers good wages and benefits. I’m worried about the giant corporations that run this country and who are taking all our money (what’s left of it).

javajaw

Is it tough? You bet!

So what? Here’s so what. TS.

We have the system we created. Quit blaming someone else. It’s YOUR fault, stupid.

What we are hearing here is the oinking of pigs that feel entitled to a big house and a big car.

They feel entitled to thirty dollars an hour to tighten lug nuts.

These fat-asses/fat-heads need to get off the entitlement kick and accept what they are worth.

If they are worth more, then they should demonstrate it by getting it. If they can’t get it, they’re not worth it.

Lose the entitlement mentality, accept what you are worth or come here and squeal your little hearts out about injustice. That will help.

William

If you vote Republican, you only have yourself to blame.

James

What we are currently witnessing is a, “REVERSE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION” where people are losing their jobs and should be thinking about going back into a farm/agriculture type lifestyle where they can provide their own food and sell the excess to other people. You don’t need those big mega-farms to do this. Just a few acres to raise animals for your own use, and grow vegetables as well. This is the way life was before the “INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION” came to be back in the 1930s. Nobody really had trouble with this lifestyle and were probably a lot healthier from the physical labor. Forget about the “good jobs” coming back. You need to start making your own jobs working just for yourselves, your neighbors, and your small farm community.

http://None Hans

I noted the comments of El Pollo de Oro above. I happen to live in the “Third World” Republic of South Africa. Yes, we have crime and we deal with it. I am 42 years old with a family. No family member of mine was ever murdered and I only know of one nephew involved in a mugging (after acting dumb!!!).
Looking at what lies ahead for America, I feel safer here. We have decent jobs but unfortunately also high unemployment. Our local banks were never allowed to participate in the CDS scams of your Banksters. At least things are actually being produced here and there are natural resources and commodities to be exported. My main concern has to do with the loss of our export markets once Europe and America collapses. How sustainable do you think it is to spend more than you earn for decades, to export all your manufacturing and to debase your currency?
The only remaining question is how long it will be before your final collapse (which will obviously hurt all of us all over the world).

dre

I am over in China with a great job along with the rest of the foreigners who have also realized that the US has tanked and we are getting valuable work experience over here. I’m not going to be able to go back any time soon, unfortunately. There are no jobs in the US for people in the middle. I am not an intern or 40 so working in media is near impossible in the US. Here, I have a job, and a good life. Beware all of you who dislike the Mexicans for coming to your country for a better life.Over in China, we are all doing the same thing…

johnnik1

The greatest generation raised the most selfish generation. Funny how the Hippies of the 60’s are now the CEO’s and CFO’s of America. And they are all corrupt and scandalous.
The Gen Xrs are going to get tired of this burden and when the bottom drops this Fall of 2011 You will see the start of protests and riots that will make the 60’s look like pre-school.
Gerald Celente was right when he said;”When people start losing things, and there is nothing left to lose. They lose it!”
I am 49 years old. My generation is either so tired half give up and die. The other half (like me) are ready to take to the streets and kick some ass.
Let’s start kicking some ass people…or they will kick yours.~With Martial Law!~

Mark

The idea that people can’t make it on min wage is a sick lie. We don’t need a car, don’t need a cell phone, don’t need a computer or internet, don’t need cable nor a TV, don’t need to eat out every day, nor watch the latest movie. Stick to the basics, rent, utilities, and food. It can be done.

NATObama Peace Prize

Geez, what a surprise. Anybody paying attention saw this coming when that doddering moron Ronald Reagan and his revolution of the elite escalated the war on working people in the 1980s. Those same policies continued under every president since – including Obama.

Hell, I knew labor leaders decades and decades ago who saw this coming back when credit cards began supplementing declining wages and benefits. Don’t worry, said the neo-liberal true believers. The good things in life will trickle down to everyone. And here we are with the greatest wealth disparity since the great depression.

This country is beyond reform.

James

All who think they are safe are not. Once the collapse comes, it is every man or woman for themselves. Buy guns and bullets. They will be the new gold in the new world. Those who have it will take what they need. Those who don’t, will perish. Darwin at it’s finest.

Golden Child

“Buy guns and bullets. They will be the new gold in the new world. Those who have it will take what they need. Those who don’t, will perish. Darwin at it’s finest.”

If guns are going to be gold in America in the near future, then America is already rich. There are 90 guns per 100 people in America. When the collapse hits, the best place to be is strapped like the militia in a secluded cabin surrounded by huge tough dogs in the remote wilderness hundreds of miles away from civilization. Forget living in a big city or an exclusive wealthy suburban area which will be ripped apart by crazed looters. I’m glad I don’t live in the Bay Area anymore with all those crazy kids of all nationalities gang banging with military issue rifles and shooting each other up outside my window like the apocalypse already hit.

John S

“Could your family survive on $505 a week?”

If only I could make HALF that much! The dirty secret is McDonalds needs to add 50,000 workers to increase the headcount in every store. The goal is to have no full-time employees who qualify for health benefits. So these 50,000 jobs will pay $174 a week BEFORE taxes, and have no benefits, no vacation days, no holidays off, call in sick and get fired, but they will have 52 mandatory weekends each year.

And how do I know this? I work for a national restaurant chain that already has gone to a part-time only policy. I am scheduled for 23 hours next week. The threshold for benefits is 26 hrs.

mondobeyondo

The most obvious sign of decline of any country, is when it changes from a production economy to a service economy. That is where we are now. The U.S. is an empire in decline. It isn’t obvious to the masses, because the decline is masked by massive consumption, fueled by MASSIVE debt.

We used to be a manufacturing powerhouse. We built the cars the world drove, and the tools and appliances the world used. How things have changed.

McDonald’s produces nothing of value, except profits for higher management. Big Macs do not drive you from point A to point B, nor do they cool or heat your house. All they do is fill your stomach and make you fat.

WalMart actually increases the productivity of third world nations like China and India – at the expense of American productivity. We now CONSUME those foreign made products – products WE used to make!!

Much of our technology was created in the U.S. We even invented the Internet (if you believe Al Gore! Ha!) But we dropped the baton. Other countries picked it up, and are running towards the finish line. America is standing still in the middle of the track, trying to catch its breath and wondering what the hell happened.

What happened? We thought we won the race by a mile, started doing our gold medal victory dance, got careless and complacent. We got beat, that’s what happened!

This issue of US unemployment crisis seems to be growing in significance and barely offering reason to suppose US unemployment crisis could improve in a practical period of time.

It has been said that one great way to turn unemployment Crisis to Profit, would be to build business.

Entrepreneurial activity.

Robert Kiyosaki, Dr. Michael J. Duckett, Reid Hoffman, and Sir Evelyn de Rothschild are among many financially successful individuals, who have affirmed entrepreneurship as a key to financial security during unemployment crisis.

There is an online platform for entrepreneurship that has be sharply growing in popularity recently – increasing its reach by over six times in the last year-and-a-half.

This platform provides a system for people to develop an online business.

Could such a platform bring a measure of income?

Consider this website, The Economic Collapse Blog, for example. This website is immersed in unemployment crisis and other forms of financial crisis.

This website is also quite popular and seems to be at least an viable opportunity for earning income for those operating this site.

Could others be able to create at least the opportunity for earning income, in a similar way?

Consider further that over 8 out of every 10 US earners are living paycheck to paycheck, with a negative savings rate.

How useful could a platform for creating the opportunity for earning income through entrepreneurship be during financial crisis?

As you are reading into the page at the link address, be asking yourself – could this assist me or others in meeting and exceeding financial obligations?

To the extent the answer is “yes,” perhaps this theory of entrepreneurship as a key to financial security during unemployment crisis could be accurate and useful.

What do you think?

On behalf of The Global FC Zone,

Crisis to Profit.

Roth

http://www.pathtoasia.com rhea

This should be a good thing for the economy right!? Just be prepared to flip burgers and mop the floor, at least it’ll give you food on the table, pay rent and send your kids to school. Oh wait, I doubt it too… The U.S.’s unemployment stats are more manipulated, kneaded & massaged than the thighs on a world-class ballerina.

I make about $400 a week; my wife nothing. Rent is $500 a month. Credit card bills (run up back when I made about $1200/week) run about $200 a month. Other expenses run us another few hundred dollars. We quit tv. We’re a litte cold. We eat ok. Try to fill the gas tank just once a month. We’re getting by, but able to save nothing, nor do we go out and have fun. Well, fun has become walks on Saturday morning. Those are free. And, as we’ve learned, rather nice.
$10 an hour stinks, but it is livable if you don’t mind admitting that you are poor. I know I’m poor now. It’s just the way it is. If I tried to keep living as i did when I was a middle class manager, I’d be extremely unhappy. I cant say I’m happy about being poor, but my wife and i are finding that happiness isn’t about having “stuff.”
By the way, any one who blames one party, or one group, or one person, is an idiot. You can blame greedy mortgage lenders, but what about buyers who knew they lied to the lender so they could get more house thathey could really pay for? You can blame Republicans, but what has the Democrats honestly done for anyone other than their special interest groups? You can blame anybody and everybody, but it won’t do any good. My recommendation is get small. Get real small, real fast, or get carried away by the economic tsunami.

Shierro Chappero

Question, how many hours are you working a week for 10$? The minimum wage in FL, 7.79, nets me about 600 something a month. I only work 25 hrs.

Bogart

If you think this whole mess is from “Globalization” you would be incorrect. Globalization is what has kept prices increased down and allowed people to have better lives. Humanity added over 2 billion people to the division of labor and has boomed because of it.

The real cause is the two pronged attack on freedom by governments and by central banks. Governments have expanded massively on the back of central bank induced booms and on loans from artificially low interest rates set by the central banks. The results have been tragic. The most competitive and technologically advanced nations saddled with these institutions have lost vast amounts of wealth.

In the USA currently there are more than twice as many people working for the Federal Government as are working in manufacturing, mining, forestry and energy combined. There are vast human resources moving paper in the government while indirectly and directly strangling these other industries.

mondobeyondo

Oh yeah, I’m prepared to enter the “new” workforce! I’ve had years of back-yard training making my own flame broiled burgers. I’m also very good at spreading mayonnaise with a knife, and I can spread mustard, ketchup, tomatoes and pickles with the best of them!

McDonald’s would hire me in a minute! But I do not want the job. Not for minimum wage. No way.

The cynics out there will surely say, “You think you’re better than a burger flipper?”, etc. No, not necessarily. I just want a job with a future, one where your creative skills can be put to good use. Most jobs at fast food places don’t offer that. Where do you move up from being a burger flipper or fry guy? Managing an army of burger flippers? Become a Burger King? (Take that, McDonald’s! Hee!!)

impeachRonPaul

The tea baggers have driven employers away demanding healthcare paid by employers. Now jobs go to coutries with a healthcare system. These white trash tea baggers ruined the economy.

d gasawa

Tea baggers? Really? All you have to make your point with is vile, vulgar name calling? Apparently ago you have no facts to back up your shallow, crude opinion.

Bobby

Americans only have themselves to blame. By continuing to support the phony two party system, that allows massive illegal immigration, job and wage depression, and is utterly in the pockets of Wall Street and their banker cronies and criminals, they are selling out the childrens future on a daily basis. No one feels sorry for weak kneed traitors and cowards, etc.

ProfessionalandDegreed

John S nailed it. I’m working fast food and desperately searching for a roommate at age 63 so I can cover $400/month rent. I now have total assets of $851 with a survival rate of less than 2 months. I keep working and keep looking. I would be in heaven at $500/week. I have no future at this point, only a past. The slum neighborhood combined with a useless professional past and the money wasted in my youth on college don’t help the morale of this woman at all. I’ll keep looking though.
“You say that you are looking for a “good job”? Well, that is just too bad.”…nice commentary.

When you see me living out of a shopping cart, don’t pity me. It could be you next.

Max Power

TECHNICAL CORRECTION :

Most American fast food chains have not flipped burgers for at least the past 20 years, as there are commercially made burger pressing machines that have been in use for the past 30 years.

Other changes to note :

French fry fast food fryer systems now offer a self cleaning feature, so there is less need to take the oil out. This features is typically programmed to run every 6 hours.

Cheaper wages are not driving jobs overseas, cheaper regulations and lower corporate taxes are driving jobs overseas. America now has the highest corporate taxes in the world. During the american heyday we had taxes lower than alot of nations. Now we have environmental regulations, osha, labour boards, the costs just keep climbing for doing business in America. People with money will do business in other nations if that will make them money. America needs to be competitive, that means less regulation and taxes. How about just a simple flat tax and no government subsidies or favoritism for any business, that will make businesses grow. How about right to work laws. We are not entitled to our jobs, we must convince businesses that we are good for business and will produce for them.

ZBK

I have personally stopped working…dont have to deal with taxes and dont have to deal with female ****** in the work place on a daily basis.

http://www.manhattancalumet.com james moylan

I have a web site where I give advise on penny stocks and stocks under five dollars. I have many many years of experience with these type of stocks. If theirs anyone that is interested in these type of stocks you can check out my web site by just clicking my name. I would like to comment about the current condition of the american economy. This is one of the hardest periods in the countries history. Their does not seem to be any consensus about the trends for the economy one week the economic news is good the next week its bad. Their seems to be no consistency what so ever when it comes to economic matters. Mcdonald’s recenly hired fifty or sixty thousand people out of one million that applied maybe mcdonald’s should change their saying you deserve a break today at mcdonald’s to you deserve a job today at mcdonald’s

http://GetABetterJob.Blogspot.com Serge V

There are times in life when we are vulnerable, we have no studies, no money, no savings, no help from others. In such situations, basically, we are forced to accept a minimum low wage job just to pay our bills. Most of us have moments like this in life. But once you make some money, go to college, or find a better job, your situation gets better. Many of self made millionaires worked many years ago minimum wage jobs, when they were vulnerable in their lives. However, one must never lose hope and belief in a better future and certainly will succeed.

Mark

Those days are gone. Globalism will continue to shrivel the middle class. Your type of thinking is from a utopian view.

STEVE SIMPSON

AT KERR DRUG IN CONCORD,NC AND BREEZY MEADOWS FARM IN MOORESVILLE,NC THEY HIRE CONVICTS, I USED TO BE ONE,AND WAS HIRED HERE.

resistdammit

As far as I’m concerned, all is lost. This country is finished. If only someone had the courage to fight back. There is a special circle in hell for the feelgood false optimists.

Dave

I would be happy to work for minimum wage. I’ve been unemployed for 2 years. The title of this article is TOO optimistic if you ask me.